Public key infrastructure in the cloud

Turnkey

Every industry has a need to authenticate and secure digital communications. The topic of how to communicate securely, whether by a virtual private network (VPN) or over Transport Layer Security (TLS), immediately brings public key infrastructure (PKI) into play. This security infrastructure has spread globally as the most trusted technology to identify people and devices, as well as secure digital communications between participants.

PKI is rightly seen as the entity that provides a trust anchor, which conversely means that a compromised PKI could render an entire digital communication system insecure. Therefore, up to now, organizations have implemented their PKI locally for security reasons.

However, the need for scalability and lower investment or operating costs suggests outsourcing PKI to the cloud. IT security administrators do not have to make any security compromises, and they are spared the need to set up everything from scratch, which they would have to do in an on-premises environment. Whether PKI is better suited as a cloud platform or software as a service (SaaS) essentially depends on the use cases. Adaptability to new regulations and new cloud-native features can also influence the choice.

Classic PKI is Expensive

Setting up the PKI security infrastructure from the hardware security module (HSM) to the database and integrating the detailed processes requires technical expertise to regulate the processes of creating, issuing, and exchanging digital identities in the form of certificates. A new implementation of a further use case pending in a local environment requires extensions to the existing infrastructure and even building new hardware systems.

The security admin also faces some challenges in operations, which is easier for admins with skills that go beyond network administration. Potential hurdles in everyday life, such as managing operating system

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